Asymmetrical Action Group
* * |branch= * Beta-5 Division |type= Joint Special Operations Activity Program |role= * Clandestine Operations * Covert Operations * Tactical Paramilitary Operations * High Value Target Action * Targeted Killing * Direct Action * Special Reconnaissance * Intelligence Gathering |size= |partof= |components= |hq= * * Beta-5 Division Facility Charlie-7 * |nickname= AAG, The Group, J-SOAP |motto= |commanders= |era= * * }} The Asymmetrical Action Group (AAG) is an unconventional special warfare unit that operates under the umbrella of the . Role and Operations History Creation In the later years of the , mankind was losing to the . As the Covenant swarmed the and began to reach vital locations, the United Nations Space Command needed to slow down the Covenant to evacuate the civilians and prepare defenses for the colonies. Among the four branches, military decision making delayed many elite Special Operation Force (SOF) capable teams from conducting missions to break up Covenant activity. The Office of Naval Intelligence was collecting a vast amount of information and not able to act on it with the lacking number of field-ready teams. The Special Operations community had the skill-set that the Office of Naval Intelligence needed and the Office of Naval Intelligence had the information the Special Operations community desired. However, the Office of Naval Intelligence was not able to recruit the elite operators from the SOF teams due to military enlistment laws. While the four branches of the UNSC continued to fight for the same goal, two ONI officers decided to create a group that allowed the Office of Naval Intelligence to work with the elite Special Operations community. A officer named Niklas Gronseth coined the term Asymmetrical Action Group and began to draft up the group's goal and mission in 2543. By 2544, Niklas found a way to let elite SOF capable teams work within ONI without breaking military laws. The creation of "sheep dipping" allowed SOF capable teams to align under the Office of Naval Intelligence for a time with a different name and conduct missions together. This allowed active-duty soldiers and commandos to conduct missions with ONI without breaking military enlistment laws enforced by the UNSC. Also in 2544, Stephan Ferguson began to write the training protocols for an Asymmetrical Action Group officer. Using its own officers from the Office of Naval Intelligence, they were recruited from elite sections such as and its own Section Three. For eighteen months, each prospective officer underwent training that transformed them into Paramilitary Operations Officers (POO). Their tasks were to serve as field officers for the elite SOF capable teams deployed onto Covenant occupied planets to break up their activity. In 2545, the Asymmetrical Action Group was created under the Office of Naval Intelligence, Section Three and in the Beta-5 Division. With the creation of the Group, the Office of Naval Intelligence began to bring in elite SOF capable teams from the , , and . Once getting their first group of teams, the Group sheep-dipped those teams and called them Sigma Teams. While called Sigma teams, the elite SOF capable teams were able to operate with the Office of Naval Intelligence as active duty operators. In August of 2545, the Asymmetrical Action Group began to deploy its Sigma Teams across the . The original groups that were operating in the Sigma Teams were: * UNSC Army ** UNSC Army Airborne SABRE personnel ** 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta operators * UNSC Air Force ** 24th Special Tactics Squadron ** Select Pilots * UNSC Navy ** Office of Naval Intelligence *** Prowler Corps personnel * UNSC Marine Corps ** Orbital Drop Shock Troop personnel ** Force Reconnaissance specialized personnel Spartan Team Incorporation By 2546, the Asymmetrical Action Group saw success with its original groups that were operating as Sigma Teams. The increased funding and supplies allowed the Group to bring in Spartan Teams. In 2546, the Group began to survey Spartan candidates for the Group. The and programs were the options at hand but due to limited numbers of each program, there were only so many the Group were able to sheep dip into the Sigma Teams. The SPARTAN-II program was the group that Office of Naval Intelligence struggled to get the most teams out of. All of the SPARTAN-II Class I program teams were aligned under and only allowed the Group to share its intelligence with NAVSPECWAR personnel. It frustrated the officers within the Group because they were all working for the same goal and Class I had some of the finest commandos, not having them as assets felt like a setback to many. The only team the Group was able to give a mission to was . While Gray Team remained under NAVSPECWAR, the Group was able to get missions to Gray Team for them to conduct. The SPARTAN-II program was another prime candidate for the Asymmetrical Action Group to pick from in. While the Class-II did not get the same missions as the Spartan-III Headhunters, they deployed onto planets where the UNSC was in a battle with the Covenant and assisted with breaking up Covenant activity behind enemy lines. With advanced armor and skill-sets compared to the elite SOF capable teams, the SPARTAN-II Class-II commandos were able to be deployed more and accomplish much more. Class-II Spartans were able to take on much harder targets and walked away with minimal causalities. The Group began incorporating SPARTAN-III program assets into the group not long after getting the green light. What remained of and Company Spartans were given the opportunity to join the Asymmetrical Action Group. Many and remaining SPARTAN-IIIs joined as a result and The Group now had a new asset to launch against the Covenant. The SPARTAN-III program assets allowed the Group to launch elite strike teams against the enemy and expect results deep in Covenant controlled space. But, Headhunter teams were scarce and the Group predicted they'd run out of Headhunters before the turn of the decade. In the final months of the Human-Covenant War, SPARTAN-III Company teams along with Headhunters were the most recent addition to the Group. A full company of SPARTAN-III program soldiers gave the Group an abundance of assets to deploy against the Covenant. During the , the Group was able to assist with shutting down many assaults across Earth and into the . Focusing on breaking up Covenant activity. The result, the Group was able to crush many Covenant strike forces before they were even able to launch. Human-Covenant War Early Operations The Group began field deployments against the Covenant in 2545 following the destruction of Beta Company in Operation: TORPEDO. Sigma Teams began to deploy around Inner Colonies near Covenant-occupied moons. Missions included demolition, high-value action and setting up communication devices to gain more information on Covenant activity. Slowly, The Group saw the result they needed. Covenant activity was found in space that was blind to ONI, Covenant activity was found around prospective colonies that were to be attacked and ONI began to figure out the Covenant's supply lines. After the success of the missions launched in 2545, The Group was able to rotate many teams out and back in. Many missions took longer than anticipated, but they were getting the results that ONI had been looking for since the start of the Human-Covenant War. By 2546, SPARTAN teams were being incorporated and the missions for the SPARTANs became different than the elite SOF teams. The SPARTANs were sent far deeper into space, they were to investigate everything they were able to find. There was no time they had to return, they were to stay out there as long as they needed and their orders were to send back reports. While the SPARTANs conducted their extreme special reconnaissance, they were able to assist with locating many Covenant strongholds deep in Covenant space. While the Sigma Teams remained in the Inner Colonies and deployed throughout, the information from the SPARTAN teams allowed them to conduct much better operations with successful executions of their intended targets. The Covenant was not slowing down despite their best efforts and The Group continued to work endlessly to try and get more targets to the teams that were rotating into then out. Throughout 2547 to 2549, the variety of targets was narrowed down to supply lines and crucial bases to be disrupted for the elite SOF teams. The Prowler Corps continued to map out Covenant space while SPARTAN teams deployed closer to the Inner Colonies to assist with slowing down the Covenant. The goal at the time was to give the UNSC breathing room so they were able to rest, rearm, refit and go back into battle. While colonies fell, the Group were planning ideas on how to slow the Covenant down. Operation: HOLD DOOR In 2549, Operation: HOLD DOOR was put into place where the Group worked to slow down the Covenant and its unstoppable fleet. As worlds fell, the Group began to think of ways to set the Covenant back. Many suggested detonating nuclear devices in order to prevent the enemy from advancing their fleets. Other brought up the idea of taking out crucial supply lines while one proposed an idea of going after their homeworlds. Their civilians were weak and it provided the perfect opportunity to launch nuclear strikes on civilian targets. Ultimately, the group settled on taking out supply lines. The idea of going after the Covenant on their planets was an interesting idea and many officers began to draft up plans to go after Covenant planets. In the meantime, SPARTAN teams were able to sever the supply lines deep in Covenant space along with taking out many Covenant armories. Many of the elite SOF teams were able to stop the rapid advances of enemies on planets as well as above orbit. Cutting the supplies on the ground gave the UNSC its time to breathe and retreat. Soon, the elite SOF teams were pushing closer to Outer Colonies and began to target moons that the Covenant had set up on. While many Headhunter teams were already deployed doing the same thing, the more teams going after Covenant armories and resupply docks allowed them to have more destruction against the Covenant. However, many operations failed when teams were killed by Covenant Special Operation forces. The failures forced the Group to pull the elite SOF teams away from the Covenant moons and keep them safer. Throughout 2550 and 2551, SPARTAN teams were sent on more missions while elite SOF teams returned to conducting operations behind enemy lines. With more important colonies coming under siege, the Group authorized the usage of nuclear devices to destroy strike forces along with strategic command operation bases the Covenant had set up. Needing to inflict mass casualties against the Covenant, the decision for nuclear devices came about after the failure at Paris IV. Studying the battle, the Group took what they learned and applied it to Meridian. In the end, Meridian fell but it took a total of three years for the Covenant to successfully take out the planet. The Group learned of orbital docking stations the Covenant was using and began to dispatch SPARTAN teams to deal with the destruction of such places. The Group threw everything they had at the Covenant from 2549 to the end of 2551, they thought they had stopped the enemy for a long enough time to prepare better defenses of Reach, Sigma Octanus IV, and other bases. As 2552 rolled out, the Group was about to be tested again and needed to be ready to throw anything at the Covenant to prevent them from finding Earth and destroying the human race. Many operations were in the talk of using a newly developed nuclear device on Covenant planets that the Office of Naval Intelligence had been working on with the UNSC Navy. 2552 Throughout the early months of , the Group conducted numerous operations with SPARTAN and elite SOF capable teams. Many SPARTAN teams went out on missions which were to strike the heart of Covenant leadership. The missions were to inflict casualties on the , , and . With no restrictions and told to get the job done, many Headhunter and deep reconnaissance teams were successful in the assassinations of many leaders. While losing Headhunters, the Group needed to secure many resources in case the Covenant were to invade and . The Group began to deploy teams to what remaining colonies seemed to be a threat to the Covenant, training exercises were launched to help the teams get used to hunting the Covenant on the planet. The better the operators knew the land, the better chance they had to fight back and inflict more damage. In April, The Group was present with many teams deployed on where they were able to assist numerous teams that were battling with the Covenant. However, the battle was lost and the Group was forced to pull out many assets from the area before losing them. Suffering from more losses, the Group began to think about arming teams with nuclear devices after seeing what did to a Covenant cruiser. Thinking of the elite SOF teams and the morals they held, the Group decided to put the nuclear devices in the hands of SPARTANs where they were able to do the most damage with them. Many Headhunter teams were sent on missions they were not coming back from to stop the Covenant from producing more assets. Elite SOF teams continued to train on remaining colonies where they waited for the Covenant to come to them. By August of 2552, The Group had assisted with the defense of and began to conduct operations on Reach. As Reach was under siege, the Group was beginning to think that Earth was next and officers within began to prepare the Jawbreaker Directive. While the Covenant began to win Reach, the Group drafted orders around the Jawbreaker Directive which ordered all Paramilitary Operation Officers to take what teams they had to go to colonies that were designated GREEN BOOK by the Group. There, they would prepare for a counter-offensive against the Covenant if they were to reach Earth. By the end of August, all of the assets the Group currently had sheep-dipped followed the Jawbreaker Directive and went to designated planets. In October 2552, Earth had become under siege and the Jawbreaker Directive went into action. With help from the Prowler Corps, the Group launched all-out assaults on Covenant shipyards, planets, forward deploying bases and began to assassinate leaders. While some of The Group assets were on Earth, they began to target Covenant leadership across the world while others were deploying deep into Covenant controlled space to take out the leadership. SPARTANs were deployed to Covenant colonies and home planets while elite SOF teams were conducting missions around shipyards and forward operating bases. With orders to not stop until they were told to do so, the Group continued to launch strike missions against everything the Covenant touched. From communication to supply lines, their chance of resupplying troops started to grow harder by the day. By December of 2552, the Group had sustained losses but continued to launch strikes against the Covenant Empire. As the Jiralhanae and Sangheili began to battle one another, The Group ordered all teams to stand down and return to the Sol system. Slipping away, the elite SOF and SPARTAN teams began their slow return to the Sol system. Many teams were burnt out after the fighting they had launched against the Covenant but were able to destroy a large number of assets the Covenant had in their space. Earth was being secured and the Group began their next rotation of teams as the others began to trickle in. The Group began to prepare for its next set of operations and what was going to happen after the Covenant Empire had fallen. New SPARTANs began to join while others left, operators left while new teams joined. But the Group continued to prepare for its next line of missions. Organization Personnel Gallery Notes and References